Forecourt management for petroleum products retailers in Nigeria will never be the same again with the latest cutting-edge technologies and solutions introduced by SmartFlow Technologies Limited, a leading indigenous technology and business solutions company, at the launch of her sister company and business solutions provider, Energy360Africa.

All roads led to the Ikoyi-Lagos venue of the Navigator Launch event where major stakeholders in the oil and gas downstream sector, retail fuel station owners, operators and consumers were introduced to the latest technology solutions designed to analyze data from their operations, optimize their business processes and entrench efficiency in their businesses.

The event also doubled as a platform for the unveiling of Energy360Africa, a SmartFlow sister company, as well as a new range of technology-driven solutions for the petroleum products retails industry.

Speaking at the company and product launch, Chief Executive Officer, Energy360Africa, Dolapo Adeyeye described Energy360Africa as the future of fuel retailing in Nigeria and across Africa. He noted that the company’s business solutions use the power of real-time data to reduce fuel losses, lower operational costs, lower operational control breaches and improve margins for fuel retailers.

Adeyeye said that efficiency drivers in the retail sector business revolved around operations, technology and analytics; stating that if any operator did not have the aforementioned in place, such a business was bound to be losing money.

He said that with the squeeze on fuel profit margins and the need to maintain accurate revenue, cost, profit, stock and expense monitoring, it was important for the petroleum products retail sector to embrace technology to maintain control and improve visibility over their businesses.

Adeyeye highlighted the solutions available to include E360SM (Station Manager); which automatically captures data from the forecourt, supports the process of remotely changing prices at the forecourt for all an operator’s stations connected to the E360SM, and easily verifies fuel delivery quantities in an operators’ tanks at all stations in the network.

Furthermore, another innovation, the E360SA (Station Analytics), helps operators manage their fuel business more effectively by delivering real-time information accessible whenever and wherever it is needed. Some of the benefits include minimizing financial loss by determining issues of fuel loss, tank leakage, theft and over dispensing. The E360SA also grants insights into peak periods and identifies inefficient hardware at any of the operators’ retail outlets across the country.

Adeyeye also exhibited several cutting-edge solutions including an Automatic Tank Gauge (ATG) machine which eliminates the need for manual dipstick and cuts the margin for error down to the minimum. Also on display was the new Horizon Fuel Pump and Dispenser, with integrated multimedia display, nozzle boost and aluminum filters for longevity.

As part of its capacity development initiative for the downstream oil and gas industry, Adeyeye noted that Energy360Afria had developed a training programme to identify and groom candidates to manage, coordinate and efficiently utilize the tools and solutions for optimum and cost-saving results in the fuels retail landscape.